Top 5 React PDF Viewers for Your Next Project

React, one of the most popular JavaScript libraries for building user interfaces, has a plethora of tools and libraries to make development easier and more efficient. One such need is displaying PDF documents within your React application. Whether you’re creating an application for document management, or online courses, or just need to show PDF files, a reliable PDF viewer is essential. Here, we’ll explore the top 5 React PDF viewers, explaining why they are the best and providing examples to get you started.

1. React-pdf-viewer

Overview

react-pdf-viewer is a powerful and flexible React PDF viewer specifically designed for React applications. It’s lightweight, easy to integrate, and comes with a rich set of features. This library is perfect for those who need to display PDFs with an excellent user experience.

Why It’s the Best

  • Ease of Use: react-pdf-viewer is straightforward to set up and use.
  • Customization: Offers extensive customization options to match your app’s look and feel.
  • Feature-Rich: Supports features like zooming, rotation, pagination, and text selection.
  • Modular: Allows you to pick and choose which features you need, keeping your bundle size small.

Example

To get started with react-pdf-viewer, install it via npm:

npm install @react-pdf-viewer/core @react-pdf-viewer/default-layout

Here’s a simple example of how to use it:

import React from 'react';
import { Viewer, Worker } from '@react-pdf-viewer/core';
import '@react-pdf-viewer/core/lib/styles/index.css';
import { defaultLayoutPlugin } from '@react-pdf-viewer/default-layout';
import '@react-pdf-viewer/default-layout/lib/styles/index.css';

const App = () => {
    const defaultLayoutPluginInstance = defaultLayoutPlugin();

    return (
        <Worker workerUrl={`https://unpkg.com/[email protected]/build/pdf.worker.min.js`}>
            <div style={{ height: '750px' }}>
                <Viewer fileUrl="/path/to/your/document.pdf" plugins={[defaultLayoutPluginInstance]} />
            </div>
        </Worker>
    );
};

export default App;

2. React-pdf

Overview

react-pdf is a widely-used library for displaying PDF files in React. It uses pdf.js, a powerful PDF rendering engine, to ensure smooth and accurate rendering of PDFs.

Why It’s the Best

  • Popularity: It’s one of the most popular React PDF viewer libraries for React.
  • Compatibility: Works well with both web and mobile applications.
  • Community Support: Strong community support and regular updates.

Example

Install react-pdf via npm:

npm install @react-pdf-viewer/react-pdf

Here’s how you can use it in your project:

import React from 'react';
import { Document, Page } from 'react-pdf';
import 'react-pdf/dist/esm/Page/AnnotationLayer.css';

const App = () => {
    return (
        <div>
            <Document file="/path/to/your/document.pdf">
                <Page pageNumber={1} />
            </Document>
        </div>
    );
};

export default App;

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3. Pdf-viewer-reactjs

Overview

pdf-viewer-reactjs is a simple and straightforward React PDF viewer for React. It’s designed to be easy to use and integrate into your project without much hassle.

Why It’s the Best

  • Simplicity: Easy to set up and use with minimal configuration.
  • Responsive: Works well on various screen sizes.
  • Lightweight: Does not add significant overhead to your application.

Example

Install pdf-viewer-reactjs via npm:

npm install pdf-viewer-reactjs

Here’s an example of how to use it:

import React from 'react';
import PDFViewer from 'pdf-viewer-reactjs';

const App = () => {
    return (
        <PDFViewer
            document={{
                url: '/path/to/your/document.pdf',
            }}
        />
    );
};

export default App;

4. React-pdf-js

Overview

react-pdf-js is another popular library that provides a simple interface to pdf.js for rendering PDF documents in React applications.

Why It’s the Best

  • Integration: Seamlessly integrates with pdf.js.
  • Customization: Allows for a good level of customization for your React PDF viewer.
  • Performance: Offers good performance with smooth rendering.

Example

Install react-pdf-js via npm:

npm install react-pdf-js

Here’s an example of how to use it:

import React from 'react';
import { Document, Page } from 'react-pdf-js';

const App = () => {
    return (
        <div>
            <Document file="/path/to/your/document.pdf">
                <Page pageNumber={1} />
            </Document>
        </div>
    );
};

export default App;

5. React-pdf-highlighter

Overview

react-pdf-highlighter is a specialized React PDF viewer that allows for text highlighting and annotation, making it ideal for educational and document review applications.

Why It’s the Best

  • Annotation: Supports text highlighting and annotation out of the box.
  • Interactive: Enhances user interaction with the PDF document.
  • Customizable: Offers options to customize the appearance and behavior of annotations.

Example

Install react-pdf-highlighter via npm:

npm install react-pdf-highlighter

Here’s an example of how to use it:

import React, { useState } from 'react';
import { PdfLoader, PdfHighlighter, Tip, Highlight, Popup, AreaHighlight } from 'react-pdf-highlighter';

const App = () => {
    const [highlights, setHighlights] = useState([]);

    return (
        <PdfLoader url="/path/to/your/document.pdf">
            {(pdfDocument) => (
                <PdfHighlighter
                    pdfDocument={pdfDocument}
                    enableAreaSelection={(event) => event.altKey}
                    onScrollChange={() => {}}
                    onSelectionFinished={(position, content, hideTipAndSelection, transformSelection) => (
                        <Tip
                            onOpen={transformSelection}
                            onConfirm={(comment) => {
                                setHighlights([...highlights, { position, content, comment }]);
                                hideTipAndSelection();
                            }}
                        />
                    )}
                    highlightTransform={(highlight, index, setTip, hideTip, viewportToScaled, screenshot, isScrolledTo) => {
                        const isTextHighlight = !Boolean(highlight.content && highlight.content.image);
                        const component = isTextHighlight ? (
                            <Highlight
                                isScrolledTo={isScrolledTo}
                                position={highlight.position}
                                comment={highlight.comment}
                            />
                        ) : (
                            <AreaHighlight
                                highlight={highlight}
                                onChange={(boundingRect) => {}}
                            />
                        );

                        return (
                            <Popup
                                popupContent={<div>{highlight.comment.text}</div>}
                                onMouseOver={(popupContent) => setTip(highlight, (highlight) => popupContent)}
                                onMouseOut={hideTip}
                                key={index}
                            >
                                {component}
                            </Popup>
                        );
                    }}
                    highlights={highlights}
                />
            )}
        </PdfLoader>
    );
};

export default App;

Conclusion

Choosing the right React PDF Viewers for your React application depends on your specific needs. If you need a feature-rich and highly customizable viewer, react-pdf-viewer and react-pdf are excellent choices. For simplicity and ease of use, pdf-viewer-reactjs and react-pdf-js are great options. If you need annotation and highlighting features, react-pdf-highlighter is the best pick. Each of these libraries offers unique strengths that can help you integrate PDF viewing capabilities into your React application with ease.

Top 5 React PDF Viewers

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